BITCOIN is boring compared to other cryptocurrencies like Ripple and ethereum, a venture capital investor has claimed.

Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency craze has been met with scepticism by institutional investors, but Bonnie Cheung, a venture partner at 500 Startups, has revealed what needs to happen for everybody to adopt the digital currency.

“So this is actually an area that bitcoin’s white paper set out to solve but really didn’t happen.”

Bitcoin, along with Ripple and ethereum are in the sights of regulators worldwide, who must strike a tricky balance, according to Dr Garrick Hileman.

Dr Hileman who has advised the CIA and US army on cryptocurrencies, warned would-be cryptocurrency investors a regulatory crackdown is coming

When Dr Hileman, from the Cambridge University Centre for Alternative Finance, was asked if regulation as inevitable he replied: “I think it is.”

He said: “Many regulators are trying to strike the right balance here between not crushing the sector and allowing innovation to foster and attract new investment to their local economies, job growth, etcetera.”

Bitcoin fell 4.26 percent to $10,969.32 at 6.48 in London, according to CoinDesk.com.

Bank of America, Citigroup are reviewing their policy after Capital One Financial earlier this month banned cryptocurrency purchases on its cards.

Money laundering appears to be at the forefront of concerns, with Discover CEO David Nelms revealing to Bloomberg that financing purchases of cryptocurrencies – such as bitcoin, Ripple or ethereum – creates headaches for banks that are required to monitor transactions for money laundering.

Visa has also ended a relationship with cryptocurrency card company WaveCrest, which allowed people to convert their cryptocurrencies into cash loaded onto a prepaid card.

The news comes after a recent survey showed that nearly one-fifth of all bitcoin buyers are using credit cards to fund their investments.

The LendEDU survey, in December, found that 18.15 percent of their sample of 672 bitcoin investors had used a credit card.

Of those, 22.13 percent did not pay off their credit card balance, with 90 percent of those hoping to pay off the balances by selling their bitcoin investments.